Quote:
Originally Posted by fazool
Hollow body (aka Jazz) guitars are my greatest disappointment...
Every time I have one I can't stand the sound. I can never get an acceptable acoustic tone nor a usable electric tone...
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Russ C
I empathize. I think the electric sounds we have come to accept and like are not helped by a hollow body - especially at volume. It’s not just a feedback thing but the “smoothness” and sustain from a solid instrument just sit better in the complexity of a band’s sound (unless it’s a jazz band of some sort where that tone is expected) .. and particularly if distortion is part of it...
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For anyone who is used to the relatively uniform response and sustain of solidbody guitars, hollowbody electrics can indeed be a disappointment -
or a reality check on one's technical skills, much as their acoustic counterparts are for someone who's used to the lush sustain and technically forgiving nature of a flattop guitar; the flip side of the coin is the richness of tone a good electric jazzbox can produce, and the broader dynamic potential for a player with good pick control - provided, of course, one has the clean right-
and left-hand technique to fully utilize its inherent capabilities. If you're a speed-picker or advanced rhythm player dealing in complex patterns - and not just in the jazz milieu - you're not going to get the same note-to-note separation or defined initial attack from a typical solidbody; in addition, the dynamic range allows for rapid changes from solo to rhythm without riding the volume knob (or, in more recent times, kicking in a boost pedal) - a handy state of affairs in the early days of electric guitar amplification (when 15 watts was considered high power for a guitar amp), and/or there was major potential for early-onset feedback in the close quarters of a postwar local jazz club. Finally, many early soul/blues/R&B bands used hollowbody guitars for most of the reasons above -
which contributed to rather than detracted from their ability to sit well in a mix - and I'll be using one of my own deep-body jazzboxes for an upcoming program of first-decade R&R at the local senior center for much the same reasons...
Quote:
Originally Posted by dilver
...Go Gretsch. Just get a proper Pro Line model and some TV Jones pickups...
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While I'll agree 100% about the Professional Series instruments' uncanny quality - I've got a 2013 G6136DC double-cut White Falcon myself - the post-2013 Korean-made 5400/5600-Series Electromatics are head-shoulders-&-navel above anything else in their
extremely reasonable (well under $1K new) price range, leaving little if anything on the table in terms of QC/fit-&-finish (and
nothing in tone/playability)
vis-a-vis their upline stablemates, main (and relatively minor) differences being hardware and pickups. If you're a Gretsch fan and you've never played one, you owe it to yourself to do so: just make sure your credit card isn't maxed out, since - as many of your fellow AGF'ers here on the Electric subforum will attest - those who try them inevitably buy them...
